Police on Tuesday were investigating a suspected homicide in which a woman’s body was discovered in a motel room in Santa Ana.

Santa Ana police found the body at about 5 a.m. at 1427 E. First St., according to Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. He said authorities were tipped off to the crime by officers working hundreds of miles away in Tulare County.

California Highway Patrol officers encountered a suspicious vehicle that had broken down on a road in Visalia. An interview with the driver led patrol officers to detain a suspect and contact law enforcement officials in Orange County about a possible crime.

Bertagna said Santa Ana police were told that an incident had occurred at an unspecified motel on East First Street. Authorities investigated and narrowed their search down to the Sunshine Village motel, where officers found a woman’s dead body.

The woman who had died was not the person who had checked into the room, so officers were required to get a warrant before conducting a search, according to Bertagna. He said it was unclear if the man detained in Tulare County was the individual registered in the motel’s records. Detectives from Santa Ana were interviewing that man on Tuesday evening, Bertagna said.

Homicide detectives on scene waiting for search warrant. Believe victim is a female, detectives en route to Fresno area to interview male detained in this case. pic.twitter.com/BBMSpYhBnw

He added that, by 5 p.m., authorities had not determined the identity of the victim in the apparent homicide. An autopsy had not yet been conducted, and officials did not immediately release a description of the woman or her cause of death.

Alma Fausto is a crime, breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. She has worked for the Register since 2013. Previously, she lived in New York City while studying at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she covered the growing Mexican immigrant population in the city. Alma has also lived and studied in California’s rural and agricultural Central Valley. She’s an Orange County native from Costa Mesa, and in her spare time likes to read, visit libraries and drink good gin.

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